Ok lets use some stats.......
Ben Hunt leads the try assists tally over every other halfback.
Ben Hunt leads the NRL in kick metres.
Ben Hunt leads the NRL in kicks.
Ben Hunt leads the NRL in attacking kicks
Ben Hunt leads the NRL in short dropouts.
Ben Hunt is 4th in the NRL in line break involvements
So with all those amazing stats........He's still not a halfback's or a captain's asshole. Stats can be twisted to back whatever argument you want. And if you want to use stats to prefer the Anthony Griffin Dragons over the Flanagan Dragons good luck with that. The Griffin sides were the most putrid and soulless Dragons sides I've ever watched play.....since '77 as my username suggests.
Let me now twist those stats I gathered towards another argument. If Mr Ben Hunt presented his team with so much opportunity as per the above stats - would that not suggest that the shite roster built around him wasn't capable of taking advantage of the opportunities he gave them? Would it not suggest that the available players weren't good enough to convert the myriad of attacking opportunities he provided? Would it not suggest our roster wasn't good enough even with the abundance of opportunities our shitty number 7 cooked up?
I'm just as disappointed and frankly disgusted with how 2024 how fizzled out and the gutless performances of the last 2 weeks but comparing Flanno and Griffin as coaches is like comparing $500 Champagne to Tooheys Red.
2022 and 2023 the issue was both coach and roster and a board doubling down on a decade of mistakes.
2024 - the issue was roster and the continued effects of a losing culture of mediocrity within a core group of players bred by over a decade of neglect. I'm pretty sure Flanno's year 2 and year 3 stats will blow Coke guzzling Griffin's stats out of the water. Let's revisit it then.
FMD ease up there champ.
The stats I provided are for consideration as to what needs to be better for us to become a top 8 side nothing more nothing less.
Anytime I post about improvement you get on your soap box defending S F as you think I'm attacking him.
Whilst he is certainly not my cup of tea I'm not advocating he be sacked and in fact the only sacking I have called for was Dean Young and on the basis of the statistics I am providing that sacking is more than merited IMO.
In your efforts to defend S F you arc up at any reasonable analysis that might even remotely suggest something is worse than what it was before.
In 2022 we won 50% of our games and didn't make the semis and at very best this year we can win 50% of games and we still wont make the semis.
The only way to be better than a 50% result overall is to outscore your opposition and win more games and in 2022 on average that would have been an extra 18 points per game and in 2024 it is now 26 points so has the task become easier or harder considering that in 2022 and 2024 when we lost games we scored and average of only 14 points?
And comparing years with different variables, injuries, suspensions, some inside some outside our control is flawed with danger
At worst you say the seasons were comparable and on par overall as both seasons 2022 and 2024 we fell 1 win short of the 8
The one difference
@Old Timer neglects is that was Hook's 2nd year in after having a look at the squad for 1 1/2' years.
Who cares if your losses are an average of 40 points diff if they are minimal enough you win the comp
He hates Flanno Yes and will search long and hard to prove his point that we are not improving
I say just keep looking at the scoreboard
Lets see what Flanno''s 2nd year brings and then compare
It’s not about hating S F it’s about understanding the task at hand.
The task has become harder due to the differential increasing significantly in our losses.
But you and a few others can’t get your head around that and seem to think that pointing out what must change is some kind of disloyalty.
You and old mate @ since 77 and a few others are dismissive of any analysis that you interpret as criticism and want me and others to bask in the sun on the back of a few good results.
Well I suggest you best send that message to S F himself because he just blew up in the dressing room and abruptly left the presser after apologizing to the fans and sponsors for the shit hat has been happening during the season and plainly stated that he has had enough and it has to stop. If that attitude is good enough for him then it's more than good enough for me.
I'm not sure that S F (all credit to him for his presser) has got his beach hat, sunnie's and 40+ lotion on basking in the pissy little bits of improvement you seem to think are there, moreover I suggest he is working on fixing that which is totally unacceptable under any circumstances and will be ripping up contracts, planning the hardest pre-season ever and looking to get some assistant coaches with some f**king ability not to mention a player or two.
S F unlike you is firmly in the "not happy Jan" camp and knows that some crucial losses were on the back of absolutely pathetic effort and that hurts him more and is no compensation for any joy that might come from any improvement and on that basis I could almost get to like the boy.
I will give S F credit for proving the media idiots wrong in that we were not a spoon side but it must be said those same clowns had us easily making the eight at varying stages of the season and even picked us (almost odds on) to beat the Roosters on Anzac Day so their judgement was f**ked in the 1st place, so in the end not it was not that hard to prove them wrong.
